Trump Card

Donald Trump demonstrated the art of the debut with the Thursday launch of his NBC reality show, The Apprentice (7th). Boosted by a Must See slot after Friends (3rd), the Donald banked 18.5 million fans; his corporate Survivor will move to its Wednesday-night home starting with episode 3. Other reality debuts weren’t quite so posh: The Peacock net’s Average Joe: Hawaii (45th) lived up to its name, while ABC’s Celebrity Mole Yucatan (70th) went underground. The WB’s Surreal Life (82nd) pulled in 5.3 million viewers, making it an improvement over former time-period occupant Tarzan. Football continued to win the weekends, with New England’s Saturday play-off victory over Tennessee (2nd) scoring for CBS and the Packers-Eagles matchup Sunday afternoon fueling Fox’s prime-time players The Simpsons (12th) and The Bernie Mac Show (37th).